Long Island Serial Killer and JonBenet Ramsey intruder theory

MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (AP) — The first find was startling: a woman’s skeletal remains cast into the dunes along a remote Long Island highway.

Then came the shock.

Days after that discovery in December 2010, police discovered parts of three more women nearby on a spit of sand known as Gilgo Beach. The remains of six other people were found along several miles of the same parkway during the next few months. An 11th person, whose disappearance had spurred the initial search, was found dead by the highway in December 2011.

What became known as the Gilgo Beach murders — the victims mostly young women who had been sex workers — flummoxed investigators for over a dozen years. The case endured through five police commissioners, more than 1,000 tips, countless theories and supposed conspiracies. Then a fresh review last year tied an old clue, about a pickup truck linked to a victim’s disappearance, to a new name: Rex A. Heuermann.

Energized by the truck tidbit, investigators charted the calls and travels of multiple cellphones, picked apart email aliases, delved into search histories, and collected discarded bottles — and even a pizza crust — for advanced DNA testing, according to court papers.

On Friday, Heuermann was charged with murder in three of the killings, and prosecutors called him the prime suspect in a fourth.

“Since the discovery of the first victim, there’s been a lot of scrutiny and criticism regarding how this investigation was handled. I will tell you this: The investigators were never discouraged,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said. He vowed they would continue working “until we bring justice to all the families involved.”

Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, pleaded not guilty to multiple murder charges. He insists he “didn’t do this,” his lawyer Michael Brown said.

But police and prosecutors paint a picture of a scheming predator who outwardly maintained the life of a suburban professional, while secretly killing women when his wife was out of town.

“We are going to convict him, and we are going to hold him responsible for what he did,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declared.

Using advanced DNA testing not available early in the case, authorities also reexamined hairs found on a belt buckle, duct tape and a burlap restraint used in the killings.

Meanwhile, investigators employed more old-fashioned methods to snare a sample of Heuermann’s DNA: They tailed him and sifted through his garbage to pluck 11 bottles from his home bin and grab partially eaten pizza crusts that he’d tossed into a trash can on a Manhattan sidewalk.

The DNA from the pizza matched a hair found on burlap wrapped around one victim, and other hairs matched a relative of Heuermann’s who isn’t a suspect, investigators said. They believe he got the other person’s hair on him at home.

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